Supernova captured in 'real time'

[htuttle]

Astronomers say they have witnessed a stellar explosion - or supernova - unfolding in real time.

(snip)

An initial release of energy from the star was picked up by the US Swift satellite in February, allowing experts to train their telescopes on the event.

(snip)

Four groups of astronomers gathered data on the event, and publish separate research papers in Thursday's issue of Nature.

"Those observations capture the time when the star collapsed, ejected its outer envelope and most of its mass and left a compact remnant behind. And we think that compact remnant is a neutron star," said Paolo Mazzali, one of the authors who is based at the Max-Planck Institute in Garching, Germany.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5298726.stm

[whistle]

1. 400 million light years ago in a galaxy far far away...thanks for posting

[graywarrior]

2. I thought you were talking about Tommy Lee

[SaveElmer]

3. Well not real time actually....

As this event occurred 400 million years ago....

But I take the meaning...seeing it as it happened!

[YankeyMCC]

4. What are the odds?

Seriously what does this say about the frequency of these events? Must be pretty high if we're able to catch one happening like this. (as the light reaches us that is)

[htuttle]

5. Considering the vast size and age of the universe, pretty high...but,

...they do have a secret in finding them. The article mentions that they spotted this one when the 'SWIFT' gamma ray detection satellite saw a telltale burst that indicated (according to theory) that a supernova was about to happen (or rather, it's light was about to reach us...:crazy: ).

After they picked it up, they pointed telescopes in the direction that they detected the gamma rays, and boom, there it was.

[rman]

7. Billions upon billions of galaxies, each with billions of billions

of stars - each of which ends being a star at some point in time, most going nova as their existence ends. Yes it is a pretty common occurrence.

[sakabatou]

6. No video?

That's a shame... I wanted to see it.